See who is paying Occupy Wall Street 'protesters'

ACORN’s front group, the Working Families Party, has been paying people to participate in the increasingly violent Occupy Wall Street protests in lower Manhattan, according to award-winning investigative journalist Matthew Vadum.

Calling ACORN “the Left’s premiere astro-turfing organization,” Vadum told WND that protests calculated to create the illusion of public support for a cause can generate large profits for their organizers.

Vadum is a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a think tank that studies left-wing advocacy groups and their funders. His book is the product of nearly three years of research and hundreds of interviews.

ACORN, which has been restructuring itself as dozens of new organizations since filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in November 2010, has acquired great expertise over the years in manufacturing so-called grassroots protests. ACORN is also no stranger to launching violent assaults on its target, he said.

In recent years, two radical left-wing billionaires, Herb and Marion Sandler, the founders of World Savings Bank, gave ACORN affiliates close to $11 million to generate street demonstrations to protest their competition in subprime mortgage lending. The New York City-based United Federation of Teachers reportedly paid ACORN $500,000 to organize protests against charter schools in Manhattan.

The Working Families Party, which was founded by ACORN leaders, has been involved in organizing the Occupy Wall Street protests since the beginning, said Vadum.

The party placed a want ad on the Craig’s List website dated Sept. 26. The ad indicated that WFP was recruiting activists to carry out “direct action,” which can include everything from nonviolent protests to violent acts of terrorism, Vadum said.

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As radical journalist Laura Flanders reported, WFP organizer Nelini Stamp has “been here since day one and she is part of the organizing team and the outreach team that has managed to bridge the distance between that first day and this day and between the grassroots folks here and the labor movement.”

Stamp said the protests are aimed at “trying to change the capitalist system” and bringing “revolutionary changes to the states.”

The Working Families Party shares an office address with ACORN a mile away from the Brooklyn Bridge where hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters were recently arrested. Among the party’s co-founders are ACORN’s former national chief organizer, Bertha Lewis. Her former right-hand man, Democratic National Committee executive director Patrick Gaspard, himself a former SEIU 1199 official and Obama White House political director, also was deeply involved in the party.

Hispanic demonstrators have also been paid to attend the parallel protest in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., Michelle Fields of the Daily Caller reports. The protesters, possibly illegal aliens, were unable to articulate what the signs they were holding said.

Meanwhile, new front groups created by ACORN are also involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement. They include New York Communities for Change, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Organize Now (Florida), New England United for Justice (Massachusetts), and Action United (Pennsylvania).

The protests, which have spread to several large U.S. cities, are part of what ACORN founder Rathke calls an “anti-banking jihad.” ACORN allies are also involved in the protests, aimed at destabilizing America’s financial system. SEIU board member Stephen Lerner, who is also a key architect of Occupy Wall Street, said he wants to “bring down the stock market” through a campaign of disruption. SEIU is a longtime ally of ACORN.